Category: Upcoming work

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Upcoming article for Computer Weekly: data classification tools

This piece – for the Storage section of Computer Weekly – will provide an overview of data classification tools. We will also look at how analytics tools and data classification overlap (and indeed, how analytics is hard to do without data classification). So I am open to hearing from vendors and end users in the storage, data science and business analytics camps.

We aim to cover:

  • What is data classification and why do we need it?
  • What kinds of tools can help with data classification?
  • What do they do? Are there different categories of tools
  • Who are the key provider, including those in the cloud?

I don’t anticipate using direct vendor quotes but I am open to vendors sending a brief summary of their capabilities in this space, along with any end user examples or case studies.

The deadline for leads is Tuesday, 21 March, 1700hrs London time.

Please email me in the first instance.

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Computer Weekly: storage articles for January 2023

My next articles for Computer Weekly’s storage section will look at storage egress charges, and backup maintenance.

Cloud egress charges

What are cloud storage egress charges and what you can do to reduce them?

The piece will cover:

What are cloud egress charges?

How do they compare to others charges made for cloud storage?

What are the risks to organisations from unchecked egress charges?

What can you do to manage and mitigate over-burdensome egress charges?

Deadline for leads: Monday 19 December

Backup maintenance

Why does backup need maintenance, what does it consist of and how do we do it?

Why can’t you just leave backups to run without some kind of maintenance programme?What can go wrong if you just set and forget?What is involved in maintaining backup systems?

How does use of the cloud change this? We will look at backing up to the cloud as well as cloud to cloud back up.

What tools can you use to help maintain backups?

What innovations in backup might make all this easier?

Deadline for leads: 07 January.

For either of these articles, please contact me by email in the first instance.

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Computer Weekly articles for November 2022

I am working on a couple of storage-related articles to appear in the last quarter of the year.

These are:

Indefinite storage

How long do we need data? And which technologies are available now, or being developed, that can extend data storage life? In some industries the projected retention period for critical data is now over 100 years, so can storage keep up?

The piece will cover:

  • What is indefinite storage?
  • How does it contrast with less lengthy periods of data retention?
  • Where might indefinite storage be required?
  • What regulations / laws might dictate it?
  • What industries, or particular data within companies, might it affect?
  • What are the technical requirements for indefinite storage?

Deadline for leads: Monday, 14th November

IT ( storage) hardware shortages and how to ameliorate them

Some critical IT components are becoming harder to source, and that is having an knock-on effect on computer hardware, including storage; potentially shortages could also ipacrt the cloud. In this piece we will look at:

  • The big picture in terms of the shortages and how long are hardware supply issues likely to last?
  • What storage hardware is affected?
  • Some evidence of the effects?
  • What are the underlying causes?
  • What are the key effects on storage hardware procurement?
  • What can IT departments do to ameliorate the effects?

Deadline for leads: Monday, 21st November

<p>For either of these articles, please contact me by <a href=”mailto:journalism@stephenpritchard.com?Subject=CW: November 2022 features”>email</a> in the first instance.</p>

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Upcoming articles: Computer Weekly, October 2022

I am currently researching the following articles for Computer Weekly.

How enterprise backup products will change in the next decade 

What are the key areas of functionality in enterprise backup that we are likely to see in the coming decade?

This piece will look at developments in automation, cloud, containers, the edge and how backup technologies are adapting — or will need to adapt — to encompass them. But I am open to other suggestions around emerging backup technologies, beyond those listed above.

Deadline for leads: Monday 17th October

Ransomware, storage and backup: Techniques and limits

This article will explain the technologies and techniques in storage and backup, that are available to defend against and recover from ransomware. 

But it will also spell out the limits of the abilities of storage and backup against a threat that is possibly best countered elsewhere.

This is a slightly longer article, so I also aim to cover:

  • What is the mechanism of a ransomware attack? 
  • What are the areas of storage and backup that a ransomware attack may impact?
  • What are the key techniques and technologies in storage and backup that can help to defend against or recover from a ransomware attack?
  • What are the limits of storage and backup technologies and techniques when it comes to dealing with ransomware? 

Deadline for leads: Monday 24th October

For either of these articles, please contact me by email in the first instance.

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Additional features for August: Computer Weekly

I am working up two further features for Computer Weekly.

AI, ML and the cloud

The first is looking at artificial intelligence, machine learning and RPA (robotic process automation), with a focus on what the cloud providers can offer enterprises to help them build AI and ML applications.

We want to examine:

  • practices that work, and those that might not
  • limitations (such as data ingress and egress costs, data protection regulations)?
  • performance drawbacks in the cloud vs capacity advantages
  • whether hybrid approaches to AI and ML, combining on-premises technology and the cloud, are effective and mature
  • how do CIOs determine which workloads are effective in the cloud, and which are better on premises?

The deadline for leads for this article is Tuesday 16th August, with a view to completing any interviews by Friday 19th.

To contribute, please contact me by email. Many thanks.

Designing a data architecture

For this piece, we want to set out how an organisation should design a data architecture: what works, what doesn’t, what the benefits are, and what resources (tools, people and skills) that are needed.

This cuts into data management, but it’s less focused on tools, and more on the business processes. It might suit consultants and analysts most of all, but we are also keen to speak to a data analyst working in a business it possible.

At this stage the deadline is flexible, and I am open to discussions with experts about the direction the article could take (see here for some previous TechTarget coverage https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/What-is-data-architecture-A-data-management-blueprint).

To contribute, please email, in the first instance, with your views and background. I’d like to have contacts for interviews lined up by 26 August.

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Upcoming storage features: May 2022

I am writing a set of storage features for Computer Weekly. These will be published in May.

How data protection can help against ransomware, and where it can’t

Which backup and recovery technologies can safeguard against ransomware? And what are the limitations of backup and disaster recovery tools, and techniques, to protect against this type of incident?

In the past we have covered immutable snapshots and offsite backups including tape, as well as recovery strategies tailored to ransomware. This feature will draw together lessons learned by organisations that have faced ransomware attacks, and cover the backup and recovery industry’s tools and advice.

Deadline for leads: Wednesday 20 April

Products for backing up containers

This feature is an overview of leading Kubernetes backup technologies.

How do they work, how are they best used, and how do organisations acquire them (eg are they standalone or part of a larger product suite).

We are open to vendor submissions but do please look at our previous coverage on this.

Deadline for leads: Wednesday 27 April

Obstacles to hybrid cloud storage – and how resolve them

This piece will look at situations that can make it hard for organisations to move to object storage, and how they can overcome them. We are looking to identify the most important hybrid storage barriers, as well as ways around the problems.

Inevitably, the piece will look at hybrid cloud in the context of both pure-play cloud and on-premises storage. But there is a working assumption that CIOs will be looking at hybrid cloud, if they’re not already using it, that it has advantages, and that businesses want to do more of it.

Deadline for leads: Wednesday 27 April

Please contact me by email if you can supply information or propose a spokesperson.

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Upcoming feature: Storage requirements for AI, ML, and analytics

For Computer Weekly, I am writing a feature looking at the storage requirements for AI, machine learning and analytics technologies.

This will include:

the demands these technologies make on storage infrastructure

The types of storage are best for the varying workloads in these areas (file, block, object, cloud

What storage vendors recommend for AI/ML/analytics use cases, and by workload

The deadline for leads is Wednesday, 16 March, with interviews the week after.

Please get in touch via the usual email address.

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Upcoming feature: navigating cloud computing costs

For Computer Weekly, I am writing this feature:

Cloud computing is often held to be the way to save on IT infrastructure costs. But do the cost savings actually stack up? And do IT departments have the skills and resources to fully cost up the different options available from cloud providers?

The article will ask:

  • What are the key challenges in cloud cost management? And what underlies them? (in terms of the structure of the market, key cloud providers etc)
  • What are the key planks of an optimised cloud purchasing strategy?
  • What vendors or services can help manage cloud costs, and how do they do this?

More detailed questions will be supplied to experts offering comment. We want to include storage costs in the article.o

Please respond with any leads by Tuesday 8th Feb, 1700hrs; all interviews will need to be completed by Friday 11 February.

Please get in touch via the usual email address.

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Security feature: dropped and expired domain names

I am researching a feature on “abandoned domain” attacks: how unused or obsolete domain names can be exploited by criminal hackers.

This is often connected to business email compromise or attempts to take over email servers, but there are other ways a disused domain can be exploited.

The piece will look at how these attacks work, how they leverage expired domains, and what they are trying to achieve – exfiltration of data, say, or spreading ransomware.

And the piece will look at how security teams can monitor for domain issues, and potentially regain control of an abused domain.

To submit suggested interviewees, or for more information on the publication and deadline, please email me no later than 2nd December.

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Computer Weekly: Storage articles, November 2021

I am working on the following Computer Weekly articles, and am looking for analyst or other expert input:

Cloud storage compliance pitfalls (deadline for contributions: November 11th)

What are the main laws and regulations that affect UK-based organisations using the cloud?

The piece will look at key areas of compliance, with a focus on the top 4 or 5 that might cause compliance issues, when storing data in the cloud.

Edge storage – an explainer (deadline for contributions: November 15th)

What is edge storage, where, why and how is it used?

What are the challenges around edge storage, including data protection, security, compliance and relocating data?

What solutions are available, on-premises and in the cloud?

Horizontal vs vertical scaling in storage (deadline for contributions: November 21st)

This is a slightly more technical piece, looking at how some storage systems are designed to scale vertically, some horizontally, and more rarely, some both (see this previous piece on HCI for background).

The piece is likely to cover:

  • NAS and SAN systems on-premises
  • On-premises HCI
  • Scaling in cloud storage

Plus why a CIO would specify one or the other (assuming you can’t have both). I will look at vendor resources for this piece, as well as potentially end user examples.

Please get in touch via the usual email address